The Relationship Between Problematic Mobile Usage and Academic Performance Among Students: The Mediating Role of Sleep Quality

Abstract

Background and Aims: The use of mobile phones has recently become an
indispensable part of life. Although mobile phones have several advantages, their
excessive use can make individuals prone to dependence. The present descriptive
correlational study aimed to explore the relationship between problematic mobile use
and academic performance among students by considering the mediating role of sleep
quality.
Methods: The study was a descriptive correlational design. Stratified multi-stage
sampling based on gender was used to select 172 students (101 females, 71 males)
among the students of the Kashan University of Medical science and Health Services.
The respondents filled out Cell-Phone Over-Use Scale (COS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality
Index (PSQI). In addition, students’ pervious term Grade Point Average (GPA) was
considered as the criterion for their academic performance. Pearson product moment
correlation and hierarchical regression analysis were run in Spss (Version 22) to
analyze the data.
Results: The results revealed that excessive mobile use has a statistically
significant negative relationship with academic performance and can inversely predict
it (P<0/01, t= -6/93, β= -0/46). Also, the results of hierarchical regression analysis
indicated the mediating role of sleep quality in the relationship between problematic
mobile use and academic performance.
Conclusion: Despite their beneficial uses, excessive use of mobile phones can
have negative influences on sleep, mental health, and academic performance of
students. Hence, it is highly important to help students use mobile phones
purposefully, efficiently, and safely and enhance their knowledge of the negative
effects of excessive mobile use.
KeyWords: Problematic uses, Mobile phone, Academic performance, Sleep quality